k-punk

Great post! This is one of the best examples of what you mean by 'intensification' I've seen on k-punk, now when you use the word I will think of Stan Lee and understand.

http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/contemplator.htm

your link didn't work for me.

it is really good though

Luke: that link's the same as the one that's already there... weird...

Tom, thanks as ever...

yeh, think Tim's comments in particular have been helpful in bring into focus the importance of escaping 'vernacular Kantianism' --- Kant describes very well that aspect of the Human OS which ostensibly opposes Duty to Pleasure --- I say ostensibly coz this is a classic example of what D and G call a double pincer, i.e. an 'opposition' whose pair terms are actually linked and mutually reinforcing (God is a lobster) --- i mean you don't have to read Lacan or Zizek (even though they are very good at demonstrating this) to know that Guilt and Pleasure reinforce one another, i.e. saying something is wrong can make it all the more enticing...
Asking 'will this increase my joyful encounters' rather than 'is this right?' and or 'will this make me feel good'? offers a way beyond this evil crab grip lol

Hey Mark ... this is great; just curious: have you read books published by Eraserhead press, esp. Carlton Mellick's novels? guess, you will enjoy his books esp. the one he has written with Kadrey; some of his stuff are available in pdf format at amazon.com.

No, Reza -- can you say a bit more?

Reza, I was wondering abt what you think abt the abstract similarity between something like the Marvel Universe and the Persian mythos?

I never read it (and I know you didn't either since you weren't a DC guy either), but someone sent me this Green Lantern Corps link that you might like as it's along the same lines as the Handbook.

http://glcorps.dcuguide.com/book2.html

The stats seem to be all taken from what was in the comics so it's mostly these unkowns everywhere rather than the handbook Marvel put out themselves, but some of this stuff seems so out of control and complex that I wish I knew what it was all about.

And anywhere that this guy rates a page is alright with me: http://glcorps.dcuguide.com/gkd.html

Did any of you guys have that huge poster that was supposed to have all the Marvel characters in one drawing?

If you haven't already, i HEARTILY recommend getting a pack of Marvel Heroes Top Trumps (volumes one OR two). In-pub play generates EXACTLY the sort of red-faced arguments you mention. "The ever-loving blue eyed thing beaten by the Man Menace MAGNETO in pusillanimy? NEVER!"

(and so on)

Carlton Mellick’s books: lots of zombies + motoric aphasia + hardcore cyberpunk + comic elements + Satan + videogame narration-style + ... :)

I was thinking about the same connections (not only to Persian mythologies but also the ancient Mesopotamian culture); however, can’t organize them right now

it wd be great to write something about the connections, a collective post perhaps: you and Robin can work on the Marvel part and I can go for Persian / Mesopotamian mythologies.

I know Kodwo Eshun is really rated as a writer by both S.Reynolds and K-Punk (not much higher accolade than that in my book) but didn't he write some pretty damaging things about many of the best blogs, namely Woebot in the Wire magazine?

To me the things he wrote sounded like such a publishing industry knee jerk reaction to the blogs (that I suspect the 'professionals' deep down view as a kind of cultural crit Napster). It really did come accross to me that he has disdain for the format.

Nice one. Would like to hear about Luka and K-Punk, the behemoths of blogging, striding through the black light district and breathing life into unknown hybrids...

On a comics tip -- thinking of getting into the invisibles.

FAO MARK K-PUNK:

have youse seen this doc abt Lacan, made in 1974, that the ICA is showing? if so is it any good? the director has since done some interesting things (inc 'Sade').

k thx bye

MJ ---- think I had a set of those Top Trumps back in the day, obv need to re-acquire so I can play against the Lukemeister lol

Reza, Mellick's books sound amazing.. collaborative post I think a brilliant idea on lots of levels ---- but maybe _we_ should do Persian mythos and _you_ shd do Marvel lol

Karl I think your memory of that Kodwo piece is somewhat distorted (or at least VERY different from my interpretation). He was typically enthusiastic about the blog form in general (making his lack of one an even sadder irony), and very positive about k-p, woebot and heronbone in particular. He was especially, and I hardly need add with reason, effusive about Sir Lord Luke. Def worth repeating here:

'On first reading heronbone, you might think its author Luka is an East London uber-Garage head deeply tuned to the East London pirate scene - which he is. But the real genius of heronbone is the way that Luka factors lyrical sensitivity into a series of diaristic meditations on poetry, injunctions and greatness, the despair of work, the value of introspection, the aesthetics of flow, quotations, odes to the flora and fauna of Bow, Hackney and Stratford, and miniature prose poems of three or four not-quite homonyms and synonyms.
Equally at home with the oeuvre of Dizzee Rascal and Fernando Pessosa, heronbone is deeply original. Music magazines cannot prepare you for the surprise of a blog that locates itself between W G Sebald, Wiley from Roll Deep and Iain Sinclair. From word to phrase, clause to lyric, sentence to paragraph, heronbone is sheer greatness: a vivid justification of the blog at its best and its brightest.'
Blimey, if _that's_ disdain, what wd you call praise lol?

HKM
vaguely aware of the Lacan doc (Lacan enthusiasm is a fairly new thing for me after finally realising that the lackonauts and signocrats had systematically turned him into a strata priest, hate the ICA, but will check it out..

Mr P Meme, you gotta read the invisibles! It's just great (sigils, pre-millenium tension, trannies, magick, sex, conspiracy, drugs, great writing, great art).

I once asked Grant Morrison to marry me at a comic convention.

Ok, that's not a good thing. but we had the same boots.

But if you liked doom patrol, you'll love the invisibles...and you must have read preacher too.

I mean, you must read preacher too, if you haven't already.

Comix-wise: Morrison (Doom Patrol, Invisibles) is alrite. As has been noted b4, a lot of his concerns (sourcery, fiction-becoming-fact, science, infection, the inhuman) overlap with K-punk obsessions. He seems to have ended up recycling his ideas (c.f. The Filth). Which is a shame. Also recommend Flex Mentallo (which is a homage to the superhero comix of 30s and 60s) and Animal Man (the final Morrison issue of which is a lovely meditation on writing, death and communication).

The Hex Corporation issue of "Marvel Boy" (which models corporate capitalism as a planetary wide alien infection) covers similar ground to recent posts on Anti-Capitalism.

Preacher: Not a fan. I mean, I like a non-stop stream of sodomy and vomit as much as the next guy but after 5 years it kinda wears thin.

Japanese manga / anime does this stuff really well also. Not familar enough with it tho...

yer, s'pose preacher lacks some of the mad invention of the invisibles universe, but still, s'better than the newspaper.

flex mentallo was good if brief (4 parts?). some of the other Morrison one-shots were great (Kill yr Boyfriend esp.).

The nineties seemed to produce a whole panoply of strangely reflective superhero stories, which pitted old characters against new 'real' worlds (Astro City e.g.). Dunno if they were really successful tho - lacking some of the pure creation that k-p seems to value in Marvel. Am I wrong to prefer DC? (If only cos of some of the Vertigo stuff?)...I guess I came to these things late....

Ah sorry, I only got to read the comments Kodwo made about Woebot (quoted on his page) so must have gotten a distorted view of his stance which is clearly very different. *Must get facts straight before opening mouth in future. After reading that I would like to see a K E blog too.